Namer and Eitan turret 3D cutaway

In the recent ground warfare conference in Israel, as I've told before, there was quite a poor coverage, and no photos apparently. But one was sent to a military forum admin nicknamed Sirpad, and he shared it with us. 

As we can see, it has everything a turret might need but I caught a few unconventional things, for the better and worse:

• Commander seems to have an MWIR night sight with a recognition range of 5km on the main vision block (FLIR), while the gunner has an EMWIR sight with a somewhat longer range, neither of which however are mentioned specifically on Elbit's site. Their HDTV cameras are also different, probably the gunner also having a longer range, higher quality one.

• There are 2 MATADOR anti-bunker/materiel/personnel short range rockets for up to several hundred meters, primarily for urban warfare scenarios where you may need a little more punch than a 30mm gun can provide. These are, of course, fully interchangeable with Spike LR 2 missiles.

• The Trophy system does not seem to have an autoloading mechanism on this one. We know the IDF required, about a decade ago during trials of the Trophy against the Iron Fist, for both contenders to have 3 interceptors per side, for a total of 6. This meant the autoloader would accommodate either 3 munitions, or 2 with 1 already loaded. It would be quite ridiculous for it to only have 1 charge per side. 

We do not know yet if this was intentionally left out from this presentation, or a temporary design choice. But we can see that the mortar's autoloading mechanism was also omitted.

Israeli Ground Warfare Conference

As in every year, apparently, the IDF will be having completely ground-focused conferences and exhibitions around the middle of May. The first major one was last year in May 16-17th 2017. 

The topics are AFVs, artillery, firepower, intelligence, tactics, strategies, force structures, future threats, and more.

In this blog I love focusing on AFVs, and unfortunately, last year the roadmap for the short to long term development of AFVs has been mostly unveiled, so today we're not left with much. But it's still something so let's dissect it:

The future AFV will be tracked, not wheeled. It will be a sensor station with varied firepower. The capabilities in development will allow the AFVs to be operated by 2 men. A third man will be a frame commander (platoon or company commander), or an external systems operator. A tank platoon will include 2 vehicles. That's our direction.

The budget for the future MBT development is limited and it makes things difficult, but the development paths are innovative. The roadmap includes automation, autonomy, broadband communication, AI, and more. The vision for future combat maneuver includes a step in capabilities. The AFV will be the center of future ground maneuver, even in complex terrain.

The Carmel program develops technologies for the future AFVs, as MANTAK will draw technologies from it and give them to existing vehicles. The AFV will have to protect itself and its firepower has to be varied. The propulsion will by hybrid. The future AFV will also have cyber protection in accordance with international standards.

We started in 2015. In 2016 the Carmel program began and will end by Q3-Q4 of 2019. We are at the end of Phase 1 - Feasibility tests for an AFV operation via 2 men. After that, MANTAK will enter the picture. 3 industries are working on this - RAFAEL, Elbit, and IAI. Each one offers a different concept. RAFAEL offers a 'glass cockpit' where the situational picture is laid on screens. Elbit offers a pilots' helmet converted for ground use. And IAI combines different technologies. This is what we will see during the demonstration in 2019. High emphasis is put on situational awareness and lethality.

Most of that is information we already know. But we do get some confirmation that all Carmel vehicles will be manned by 3 crewmen. 2 are the actual crew, and the third is a commander or drone operator. Since we also now know there will be 2 vehicles per platoon, we can infer in one there will be the platoon commander and in another the drone or systems operator.

Maybe more next time.